We last set up our three tanks in May 1996 after we had to tear them down

to make way for some house remodeling. So they all have 7+ years on them.

We decided to tear down the 120g tank this summer to cut down on
maintenance a bit but it was still going strong - no visible algae, rapid
plant growth. We could see no difference in growth or stability compared
to the initial set up. We've never added anything to the substrate beyond
the initial 2 kg of laterite. It had a 250w Dupla heating cable. We
neither saw nor smelled any problems in the substrate when it was removed.

I'm the new owner of George and Karla's 120g tank. When I set it back up
all I did was top the old gravel with some new gravel to keep the
laterite dust to a minimum. The tank is still high tech minus heating
cables and is growing anything I put in there like mad...